Catching up...

February 28, 2010
Yesterday was the big Surrogate Spike Tape archive acquisition. I met up with Robert and he gave me over 16 Distorted Pony tapes as well as some recording of Down By Law, Mecca Normal, Saraspoden, Pop Defect and a few others. There’s even a Mecca Normal/Distorted Pony collaboration in there that I’d really like to hear. Along with the tapes Robert gave me his ½” 8 track and ½” 16 track. So we now have all the Punishment Room and Instant Winner tapes so we can hopefully glean some parts that are a little tricky from just listening to the albums. The distortion is so thick and dark on Instant Winner that at times it’s tough to hear the details.

March 17, 2010
It’s been a while since I’ve written in here. London is out of town for a couple weeks so we haven’t rehearsed but I did meet up with him at the studio just before he left. We listened to a bit of Instant Winner then pulled out some other tapes that we could hear on the1/2”16 track machine. There are some interesting things on those reels. There are some songs he had never heard so obviously they were new to me as well. I have to get the ½” 8 track fixed so that’s in the shop at the moment.
We’re still working on the European tour. Nothing solid yet, Jon has been working hard to try and make it happen on his end. It’s only March but even that is a little late for booking in August I guess. We have a 3rd Distorted Pony site going on myspace so once we get our previous fans over we’ll delete the old one.
In April we’re working on getting David out here and playing our first show. Not sure about any details yet because we need to nail down the dates but it looks like it’ll be the end of April if it happens. I’d like it to be a real show but seems like we may even play unannounced just to get the cobwebs out. Tricia and Ted haven’t played in a really long time and it’ll be the first time I play live with them so we’d like it to be fun more than anything else.
So I wish I could say that we have dates booked and things have progressed more but we’re still waiting on things to happen on the touring end. We should have new shirts soon and we are even hoping to begin working on recording or remixing some things in May.

March 22, 2010
Not much new to report. London is out of town so rehearsals have been put on hold. We are working on other non-music related stuff like the myspace page http://www.myspace.com/distortedponyofficial We did get asked to possibly play a benefit show in May with our friend’s Totimoshi. It all depends on who else is on the bill and if there is a space for us. Some of the other bands that might be playing are really great so it’d be a really cool thing to be a part of. As soon as we know if we’re going to do it I’ll include more details and actually even if we don’t do it, I’ll be sure to mention it on here since it’s to help out some friends.
We’re still waiting to here good news about Europe. No bad news but nothing set in stone yet. Jon is working hard trying to get us some shows that will allow us to get over there. The main thing is getting shows that will allow the booker/agency to recoup their costs and hopefully make a profit. It’s quite a bit different than touring in the U.S. The way it works is the agency pays your way and then they make their money back from the shows. The bands basically get an all expense paid tour and make money off their merch. Obviously this can vary depending on circumstances but they even pay your food, transportation, backline, lodging and just about anything else that comes along. So it’s a big commitment and investment on their part.
Another thing we are going to be doing is a daily upload on myspace of images such as flyers, artwork, pictures, music etc… just to keep things moving on there. Myspace and I suppose any website can become quite stale and I think this is one way we can keep things interesting on there.

March 31, 2010
Ted and one of his little ones came over today and we listened to a few of the Distorted Pony tapes. Quite a few songs that mutated far from how they originally sounded. Gutbug, for example, sounds way more somber and eerie. There’s a drum machine and Robert playing an ebow that really adds a toned down and atmospheric quality to it as compared to the noisy, feedback version on Punishment Room. God’s List also has a drum machine and different lyrics to it. A big surprise was Jahr Null with London on drums. That completely changes the song and that’s the case for the most part with everything else that he played on. The demo versions are much slower and not as intense and powerful as having a live drummer. Some of the demos are almost danceable. In fact, Gutbug is called “funktune.” I’m guessing it’s due to Tricia’s bass line being somewhat upbeat. You add a live drummer, metal dissonance and guitar noise and you have it evolve quite far from what it once was. That’s one of my favorite DP songs. I remember talking to David about it and he gave me some insight as to where he got ideas for lyrics and how he took pieces different sources to piece together the song and create the final thing. I won’t spoil it for you by sharing the details because I know what I get from the songs isn’t what others may interpret and it’s part of what I like about the lyrics. Same thing happens with other songs. I remember asking about what “keep talking about the beach” meant and he asked me to give my take on it and then he related where he got the idea for that line. It was so far removed from what I was thinking.
So now we’re trying to decide what to do with all this stuff. It’d be great for people to hear it and I think to package it properly and give the songs their own place in the catalog of material that DP has put out would I think be the best thing to do, it just depends on how we go about doing that. We’ve talked about limited pressing of stuff or tour releases. So we have to focus on a few things at a time and figure out ways to get them out there effectively.

Europe is looking more like it’s going to happen. Not set in stone quite yet but we’re getting a few more offers and if we can just pull it all together than we can make it feasible to spend a couple of weeks playing. Jon is busting ass and we really give him a lot of credit for trying to get us over there. Hopefully all his hard work will pay off and it’ll be a good experience for all of us. He’s really made it a priority to help us out. A couple of weeks ago it’d didn’t look so good but lately we’ve been getting a few more proposals that can really solidify things.